His Grand Design: Update, Updates and Even More Updates!

Hi there! For those of you who have not heard the latest on our current adoption or our Miss Nina...here we go!

Nina getting ready to go into school!

As for Nina, she just had three appointments last Tuesday. Dermatologist was uneventful, if you do not know much about TSC small bumps frequently show up on the face and they prescribe a cream to help take them away. They say with TS generally they do come back, this just helps to keep them away. Her Neurologist was a slight success as we were pumped that we managed to keep her BP down with just a no salt diet as oppose to giving her the BP medicine they prescribed, but they found traces of blood in her urine which could be from the medicine she is on for her seizures, which could be effecting her liver, or could be a fluke...who knows. On to her neurologist...well...that was a harder appointment. They said basically Nina just has a lot of seizures all over. Their hope post surgery, what they see in a majority of their TSC kids, is that the seizures are much more controlled. As she explained it, "we shut down the one seizure, and the other spots are stepping up to take the crown". The last big seizure she has was caused by a tumor on her right frontal lobe, behind the one they removed, unfortunately that one can not be touched to do the fact that it is in her motor cortex. So if medicine never shuts it down, we could see those kinds of seizures again. She says her and her associates stare at Nina's scans for hours just baffled at the out come post surgery. In her words, "one of the toughest TS cases we have!" So right now the good news is no surgery for awhile and no five day VEEG's scheduled! We can just live and pray that between the medicines and life, things will settle down in her brain! So far that has not happened, but I know my God is BIG and I know my God has a plan in her life and in ours! He is NOT done writing her story!!! Nina brings so much joy where ever she goes! As soon as she saw her neurologist come in the door she hopped off of my lap and into her doctors arms! Which I can tell you, as sweet and lovable as Nina is, she does not usually just love on everyone.
Aside from all that, the most baffling thing is how much Nina's personality is changing! After surgery she regressed back to about an 18 month old! After changing up her medicines and her last Veeg something starting happening. I may have mentioned in my last post that I had all the sudden become her new favorite and she was not a fan of Josh, that is slowly starting to level out a little more. She still seems to prefer me, but he is a very close second! She seems to have come full circle to the girl she was when we first adopted her! She is a sweet, lovable, but VERY stubborn girl! If she does not want to do it she has no problem standing her ground! No more chances for the other kids to take a toy and she just takes it like she has been doing since her surgery, now she will yank it right back! When Nina came home she LOVED to dance and sing! Since the surgery, she stopped dancing and did not seem to be able to remember any songs we sang! Now you can just see it all over her face when we play songs she used to love, that she remembers them! She was even humming one the other day out of the blue!! She has even said a few Mandarin phrases she said when we first brought her home, that she has not said in a looong time! And she just started saying a few phrases she could say pre-surgery. The brain is a fascinating thing! Though we see some of the negative orphanage behavior again, which I am not going to lie has been HARD to see again, it is also SO encouraging to know she is coming back to us! We got her far once we had her home and together we can DO IT AGAIN!

A picture from a mama who met our Abbi last month!

As far as our adoption...we hit more roadblocks than I even care to imagine! BUT, if nothing else goes wrong (which I am learning to never say never HA!) we should be bailing our sweet Abbi out the end of June!!!!!! The orphanage still has yet to take her to the doctors to find out what is going on with her seizures,,,but sadly,,,she is an orphan...why would they. Any how we are ready for her! And Nina's awesome Epilepsy team is already to meet her when she is home!
Since we are so close to the end we will be wrapping up our fundraising with two more awesome events on facebook! So be on the look out for a new post coming up soon with all of the details! Here is a little HINT...if you have girls you will LOVE our Raffle!!! If you are planning a relaxing vacation for the fall we on the look out for our FANTASTIC AUCTION! Both Events will take place HERE! >>>> AUCTION FOR ABBI!!!!
Both gifts were given for us to giveaway from other amazing adoption mamas! I am amazed how God brings people in your path when you are willing to say to His journey! A front row seat to His amazing works!!!
Thank you all for your love and support through our journey! I can NOT wait to shout we have Travel Approval and can race to bring home our Abbi!!!!